Millionaire Not Charged in Road Crash

Sep. 1, 2011

Moscow region police declined on Thursday to press charges against a multimillionaire whose car was caught on video striking and killing a biker in a road accident.

The incident involving the car of Alexander Zaribko, co-founder of the Viktoria supermarket chain, occurred on Novorizhskoye Shosse outside Moscow last Saturday but only attracted attention after the video, shot from another car, appeared on YouTube.

The footage shows a Mercedes S500 swerving into the fast lane without switching on its turn signal and then striking a biker, who goes flying together with his motorcycle.

Zaribko was identified as the Mercedes driver by regional police, who said they were looking into the accident but did not believe that it warranted criminal charges.

"Our investigators have ruled that there are no grounds for criminal charges against Zaribko," a regional police spokeswoman told RIA-Novosti.

Zaribko, whose net worth was put by Finans magazine in February at 7 billion rubles ($240 million), was not available for comment Tuesday.

Viktoria owns 249 supermarket stores in four cities, including the Viktoria Kvartal chain, popular with middle-income Muscovite shoppers.

A spokesman for the Dixy Group chain, which acquired Viktoria in February, said by e-mail Thursday that Zarubko is a minority shareholder of Dixy.